The Minolta XE, known as the XE-1 in Europe and the XE-7 in North America, is a

manual focus In the field of photography, a manual focus camera is one in which the user has to adjust the focus of the lens by hand. Before the advent of autofocus, all cameras had manually adjusted focusing; thus, the term is a retronym. The focus itself m ...

, 35 mm

single-lens reflex In photography, a single-lens reflex camera (SLR) is a type of camera that uses a mirror and prism system to allow photographers to view through the lens and see exactly what will be captured. SLRs became the dominant design for professional a ...

camera A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

produced by

Minolta was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras, lenses, camera accessories, photocopiers, fax machines, and laser printers. Minolta Co., Ltd., which is also known simply as Minolta, was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as . It made the first integrated ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

between 1974 and 1977. It was developed in collaboration with Leica Camera and has many similarities to the

Leica R3 The Leica R3 was a 35mm SLR camera by Leica and the first model of their R series. Leica launched the Leica R3 in 1976. It was the successor of the Leicaflex SL2, and was developed in cooperation with Minolta was a Japanese manufacturer ...

. The XE uses a Leitz-

Copal Copal is a tree resin, particularly the aromatic resins from the copal tree '' Protium copal'' ( Burseraceae) used by the cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica as ceremonially burned incense and for other purposes. More generally, copal includ ...

electronic, vertically traveling, metal blade

focal plane shutter In camera design, a focal-plane shutter (FPS) is a type of photographic shutter (photography), shutter that is positioned immediately in front of the focal plane of the camera, that is, right in front of the photographic film or image sensor. ...

supporting exposure times of 1/1000 of a second to four seconds, plus bulb setting. In

aperture priority Aperture priority, often abbreviated ''A'' or ''Av'' (for aperture value) on a camera mode dial, is a mode on some cameras that allows the user to set a specific aperture value (f-number) while the camera selects a shutter speed to match it that ...

auto-exposure mode, the shutter speed is varied steplessly; in manual mode, the shutter speeds are selected in whole stop increments. The camera has a very short

shutter lag In photography, shutter lag is the delay between triggering the shutter and when the photograph is actually recorded, which includes all lag between when the shutter button is pressed and when the photo is taken, including metering and focus lag. ...

of about 38ms, among the best for an SLR regardless of manufacturer. Image:Verschlusszeitenrad Minolta XE-5.jpg, Detail Image:XE7NoCvr.jpg, XE-7 with covers removed, exposing the electronics

References

See also